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Sotsu, Masutake
Journal of Energy and Power Engineering, 14(8), p.251 - 258, 2020/08
Thermal expansion behavior was investigated for evaluation of the core support plate expansion reactivity in the Unprotected Loss of Heat Sink reactor trip failure event. A possibility of mechanical restraint was investigated in thermal expansion of the core structure for the prototype fast breeder reactor Monju. The reactor core expansion was simulated in a three-dimensional finite element analysis model of the reactor vessel considering detailed temperature distribution of the sodium coolant based on the thermal-hydraulic analysis result of the whole core model. It was found that the thermal expansion of the core was not restrained in the ULOHS evert, although part of the core structure is mechanically restrained.
Mitsumoto, Rika; Hazama, Taira; Takahashi, Keita; Kondo, Satoru
JAEA-Technology 2019-020, 167 Pages, 2020/03
JAEA-Technology-2019-020.pdf:21.06MBJAEA-Technology-2019-020-high-resolution1.pdf:47.3MBJAEA-Technology-2019-020-high-resolution2.pdf:34.99MBJAEA-Technology-2019-020-high-resolution3.pdf:48.74MBJAEA-Technology-2019-020-high-resolution4.pdf:47.83MBJAEA-Technology-2019-020-high-resolution5.pdf:18.35MBJAEA-Technology-2019-020-high-resolution6.pdf:49.4MBJAEA-Technology-2019-020-high-resolution7.pdf:39.78MB
The prototype fast breeder reactor Monju has produced valuable technological achievements through design, construction, operation and maintenance over half a century since 1968. This report compiles the reactor technologies developed for Monju, including the areas: history and major achievements, design and construction, commissioning, safety, reactor physics, fuel, systems and components, sodium technology, materials and structures, operation and maintenance, and accidents and failures.
Koga, Kazuhiro*; Suzuki, Kazunori*; Takagi, Tsuyohiko; Hamano, Tomoharu
FAPIG, (196), p.8 - 15, 2020/01
The prototype fast breeder reactor Monju has already started (from June 2017) the unloading operation period (about 5.5 years: until the end of 2022) of the fuel assembly, which is the first stage of decommission. Among them, the first "Processing of fuel assembly" operation (86 in total) was conducted from August 2018 to January 2019 as the first handling of the fuel assembly. Fuji Electric provided technical support, such as dispatching technicians throughout the period, in cooperation with Japan Atomic Energy Agency for the "Processing of fuel assembly" operation, and contributed to the completion of the operation while experiencing various troubles. This manuscript introduces the contents of the first "Processing of fuel assembly" operation and the overview of the trouble status. This manuscript is a sequel to FAPIG No.194 "Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor Monju Decommissioning and Unloading Operation of the Fuel Assembly from the Core", please refer to it.
Sotsu, Masutake; Hazama, Taira
Journal of Energy and Power Engineering, 13(11), p.393 - 403, 2019/11
This paper describes methods and results of the uncertainty evaluation of the significant plant response analysis of the reactor trip failure event, i.e. anticipated transient without scram of the Japanese prototype fast breeder reactor Monju. Unprotected loss of heat sink has a relatively large contribution to the core damage frequency due to reactor trip failure. The uncertainty of the allowable time to core damage in this event by plant transient response analysis, so far, has been estimated with considering the range of reactivity coefficients. There are some cases where core damage is considered to be avoided. Specifically, it is assumed that the core damage due to the ULOHS event would be avoided if the sodium temperature at the pump inlet stays below 650
C for 1 h; otherwise the possibility of cavitation occurring in the hydrostatic bearing increases. In this study, a method is developed to search for a solution as an inverse problem of multiple input variables that satisfy the temperature condition. This paper, as a first step, describes input conditions and probability to satisfy the temperature are evaluated through analyses treating input parameters, reactivity coefficients and kinetic parameters, as variables within the design range.
Muto, Keitaro; Hamano, Daisuke; Kawabata, Mamoru; Tabakoya, Yasuhiro; Yanai, Chisato
E-Journal of Advanced Maintenance (Internet), 11(2), p.86 - 91, 2019/09
Gas sampling type sodium small leak detector, SID, Sodium Ionization Detector, a gas sampling detector installed to monitor small sodium leak in the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor Monju, had been operated since it's system start up test through to the 40% reactors output test, It's use was terminated in April, 2018. SID showed some indication variations during its operation period, and necessary measures were implemented. As a result, the SID system maintained its functions without any critical malfunction until the end of its operation.
Tsuruga Comprehensive Research and Development Center
JAEA-Technology 2019-007, 159 Pages, 2019/07
JAEA-Technology-2019-007.pdf:19.09MBJAEA-Technology-2019-007-high-resolution1.pdf:42.36MBJAEA-Technology-2019-007-high-resolution2.pdf:33.56MBJAEA-Technology-2019-007-high-resolution3.pdf:38.14MBJAEA-Technology-2019-007-high-resolution4.pdf:48.82MBJAEA-Technology-2019-007-high-resolution5.pdf:37.61MB
This report summarizes the history and achievements of the prototype fast breeder reactor Monju. The development of Monju started in 1968 as a prototype reactor following the experimental fast reactor Joyo. The development covers all the activity related to the fast reactor; plant design, mockup tests, construction, operation, and plant management. This report summarizes the history and achievements for 11 technical areas: history and principal achievements, design and construction, operation test, plant safety, core physics, fuel, plant system, sodium technology, materials and mechanical design, plant management, and trouble management.
Aizawa, Kosuke; Sasaki, Koei; Chikazawa, Yoshitaka; Fukuie, Masaru*; Jimbo, Noboru*
Nuclear Technology, 204(1), p.74 - 82, 2018/10
Times Cited Count：0 Percentile：100(Nuclear Science & Technology)Development of inspection technique in opaque liquid metal coolant is one of the important issues to ensure the safety of Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactor (LMFBR). Performance tests of an Under Sodium Viewer (USV), which was developed to detect an obstacle in the reactor vessel (RV) of LMFBR Monju, have been carried out. The ultrasonic sensors and reflectors are located across the core inside of the Monju's RV. The USV can detect an obstacle existing in between the core top and the Upper Core Structure (UCS) bottom by identifying differences of echo signals. This report describes the USV performance tests. In the tests, the reference echo signals under various conditions were accumulated and the signal to noise ratio successfully exceeded the target value. Measured signals clearly differed from with and without an obstacle. These experimental results show the performance of the USV for detecting an obstacle in the specified place.
Usami, Shin; Kishimoto, Yasufumi*; Taninaka, Hiroshi; Maeda, Shigetaka
JAEA-Technology 2018-003, 97 Pages, 2018/07
JAEA-Technology-2018-003.pdf:12.54MB
The decay heat used for effectiveness evaluation of the prevention measures against severe accidents in the prototype fast breeder reactor Monju was evaluated by applying the updated nuclear data libraries based on JENDL-4.0, reflecting the realistic core operation pattern, and setting the rational extent of uncertainty. The decay heats of fission products, the actinide nuclides such as Cm-242, and radioactive structural materials were calculated by FPGS code. The decay heat of U-239 and Np-239 was evaluated based on ANSI/ANS-5.1-1994. The calculation uncertainty of each decay heat was evaluated based on summation of uncertainty factors, C/E values of reaction rates obtained in Monju system startup test, and so on. Furthermore, the decay heat evaluation method based on the FPGS90 was verified by the comparison of the results of the decay heat measurement of the two spent MOX fuel subassemblies in the experimental fast reactor Joyo MK-II core.
Kitano, Akihiro; Nakajima, Ken*
Proceedings of 2018 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants (ICAPP 2018) (CD-ROM), p.1205 - 1210, 2018/04
The feedback reactivity is taken into account in fast reactor core design especially in order to make the power coefficient negative, which is required to be confirmed in the operation. In the feedback reactivity experiment, the positive reactivity was inserted in the critical state at zero power, and the thermal data, such as reactor power and the R/V inlet temperature, was acquired until the power got stable by the feedback reactivity. In the conventional study, only two critical points in an experiment are available for evaluation of the feedback reactivity coefficients. This method needs three days for evaluation. The advanced method based on the inverse kinetics is newly applied in this work using the more extensive data. It is confirmed that this approach can evaluate the feedback reactivity coefficients in one experiment.
Takano, Kazuya; Maruyama, Shuhei; Hazama, Taira; Usami, Shin
Proceedings of Reactor Physics Paving the Way Towards More Efficient Systems (PHYSOR 2018) (USB Flash Drive), p.1725 - 1735, 2018/04
Irradiation dependence of the core excess reactivity was investigated for the Monju system startup tests at zero-power carried out in 2010. The excess reactivity basically decreases with the 
decay of 
Pu in zero-power operation. However, the excess reactivity little changed in the two month period of the startup tests, which suggests a positive reactivity insertion during the period. The investigated irradiation dependence shows that the positive reactivity increases with reactor operation and mostly saturates by the fission-dose attained during the Monju zero-power operation in a month (
10
fissions/cm
). The saturated positive reactivity is equivalent to approximately 47% of the initially accumulated self-irradiation damage recovery assuming the defects were recovered by the fission-fragment irradiation in the reactor operation.
Taninaka, Hiroshi; Takegoshi, Atsushi; Kishimoto, Yasufumi*; Mori, Tetsuya; Usami, Shin
Progress in Nuclear Energy, 101(Part C), p.329 - 337, 2017/11
Times Cited Count：0 Percentile：100(Nuclear Science & Technology)The present paper describes the evaluation of the power reactivity loss data obtained in the Japanese prototype fast breeder reactor Monju. The most recent analysis on the power reactivity loss measurement (Takano, et al., 2008) is updated considering the following findings: (a) in-core temperature distribution effect, (b) crystalline binding effect, (c) logarithmic averaging of the fuel temperature, (d) localized fuel thermal elongation effect, (e) updated Japanese Evaluated Nuclear Data Library, JENDL-4.0, and (f) refined corrections on the measured value. The influences of the updates are quantitatively identified and the most precise and probable C/E value is derived together with a thorough uncertainty evaluation. As a result, it is revealed that the analysis overestimates the measurement by 4.6% for the measurement uncertainty of 2.0%. The discrepancy is reduced to as small as 1.1% when the core bowing effect is considered, which implies the importance of the core bowing effect in the calculation of the power reactivity loss.
Mori, Takero; Ohira, Hiroaki; Sotsu, Masutake; Fukano, Yoshitaka
Proceedings of 2017 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants (ICAPP 2017) (CD-ROM), 9 Pages, 2017/04
Since safety measures against severe accidents (SAs) such as a long-term station blackout (SBO) are required for Japanese prototype fast breeder reactor Monju, a validation is necessary for the plant dynamics code during SBO. In order to take into account the phenomena in natural circulation: a heat transfer among subassemblies and a flow redistribution, a whole core model has been developed for the plant dynamics code, Super-COPD. This model has been validated by test results of natural circulation in actual facility. In this study, this whole core model was applied to Monju core to evaluate safety measures against SBO, and the pressure loss model of Monju was validated by comparing with results of the plant trip test from the power of 40%. In addition, an analysis was conducted for SBO to investigate the applicability of this model to Monju. The applicability of this model was confirmed by comparing with analytical results using the model without heat transfer between assemblies.
Ichikawa, Shoichi; Chiba, Yusuke; Ono, Fumiyasu; Hatori, Masakazu; Kobayashi, Takanori; Uekura, Ryoichi; Hashiri, Nobuo*; Inuzuka, Taisuke*; Kitano, Hiroshi*; Abe, Hisashi*
JAEA-Research 2017-001, 40 Pages, 2017/03
JAEA-Research-2017-001.pdf:5.19MB
In order to reduce the influence on a plant schedule of the MONJU by the maintenance of dew point hygrometers, The JAEA examined a capacitance type dew point hygrometer as an alternative dew point hygrometer for a lithium-chloride type dew point hygrometer which had been used at the CV-LRT in the MONJU. As a result of comparing a capacitance type dew point hygrometer with a lithium-chloride type dew point hygrometer at the CV-LRT (Atmosphere: nitrogen, Testing time: 24 hours), there weren't significant difference between a capacitance type dew point hygrometer and a lithium-chloride type dew point hygrometer. As a result of comparing a capacitance dew point hygrometer with a high-mirror-surface type dew point hygrometer for long term verification (Atmosphere: air, Testing time: 24 months), the JAEA confirmed that a capacitance type dew point hygrometer satisfied the instrument specification (
2.04C) required by the JEAC4203-2008.
Ichikawa, Shoichi; Chiba, Yusuke; Ono, Fumiyasu; Hatori, Masakazu; Kobayashi, Takanori; Uekura, Ryoichi; Hashiri, Nobuo*; Inuzuka, Taisuke*; Kitano, Hiroshi*; Abe, Hisashi*
JAEA-Research 2016-021, 32 Pages, 2017/02
JAEA-Research-2016-021.pdf:5.0MB
In order to reduce the influence on a plant schedule of the MONJU by the maintenance of dew point hygrometers, The JAEA examined a capacitance type dew point hygrometer as an alternative dew point hygrometer for a lithium-chloride type dew point hygrometer which had been used at the CV-LRT in the MONJU. As a result of comparing a capacitance type dew point hygrometer with a lithium-chloride type dew point hygrometer at the CV-LRT (Atmosphere: nitrogen, Testing time: 24 hours), there weren't significant difference between a capacitance type dew point hygrometer and a lithium-chloride type dew point hygrometer. As a result of comparing a capacitance dew point hygrometer with a high-mirror-surface type dew point hygrometer for long term verification (Atmosphere: air, Testing time: 24 months), the JAEA confirmed that a capacitance type dew point hygrometer satisfied the instrument specification (2.04C) required by the JEAC4203-2008.
Kitano, Akihiro
Bunri Henkan Gijutsu Soron, p.215 - 222, 2016/09
Prototype fast breeder reactor Monju has restarted in May 2010 after the long shutdown since the sodium leak accident. Before the restart the safety authority has examined the influence of the long shutdown, such as the characteristics of Am accumulated in MOX fuel. The integral data of the core with about 1.5% was acquired in the core confirmation test conducted in 2010 and the newest analysis method shows the enough accuracy. The irradiation test for the MA transmutation is planned, called GACID project by Japan, France and United States. The research of MA transmutation is one of the most important issues in Monju research plan included in the basic research plan decided by the cabinet council. It is expected that Monju would be utilized to demonstrate MA transmutation in the fast reactor.
Kitano, Akihiro; Takegoshi, Atsushi*; Hazama, Taira
Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 53(7), p.992 - 1008, 2016/07
Times Cited Count：2 Percentile：72.02(Nuclear Science & Technology)A feedback reactivity measurement technique was developed based on a reactivity model featuring components that depend on the reactivity coefficients, denoted as reactor power (K
) and reactor vessel inlet temperature (K
). This technique was applied to the feedback reactivity experiment conducted in the Monju system start-up test in May 2010. A thorough evaluation considering all possible biases and uncertainties revealed that the reactivity coefficients can be evaluated with a measurement uncertainty smaller than 3%. The evaluated reactivity coefficients were simulated considering the temperature distribution in the core. The C/E value of K showed good agreement between calculated and measured values within the established uncertainty, and the value of K was consistent with that reported in a previous isothermal temperature coefficient experiment. The measured and calculated fuel subassembly outlet temperatures also agreed well within 0.2C.
Usami, Shin; Kishimoto, Yasufumi; Taninaka, Hiroshi; Maeda, Shigetaka
Proceedings of International Conference on the Physics of Reactors; Unifying Theory and Experiments in the 21st Century (PHYSOR 2016) (USB Flash Drive), p.3263 - 3274, 2016/05
The present paper describes the validation of the new decay heat evaluation method using FPGS90 code with both the updated nuclear data library and the rational extent of uncertainty, by comparing the results of the decay heat measurement of the spent fuel subassemblies in Joyo MK-II core and by comparing with the calculation results of ORIGEN2.2 code. The calculated values of decay heat (C) by FPGS90 based on the JENDL-4.0 library were coincident with the measured ones (E) within the calculation uncertainties, and the C/E ranged from 1.01 to 0.93. FPGS90 evaluated the decay heat almost 3% larger than ORIGEN2.2, and it improved the C/E in comparison with the ORIGEN2.2 code. Furthermore, The C/E by FPGS90 based on the JENDL-4.0 library was improved than that based on the JENDL-3.2 library, and the contribution of the revision of reaction cross section library to the improvement was dominant rather than that of the decay data and fission yield data libraries.
Taninaka, Hiroshi; Kishimoto, Yasufumi; Mori, Tetsuya; Usami, Shin
Proceedings of International Conference on the Physics of Reactors; Unifying Theory and Experiments in the 21st Century (PHYSOR 2016) (USB Flash Drive), p.2610 - 2621, 2016/05
Reactivity loss due to power ascension (power reactivity loss or power coefficient of reactivity) is thus an important design parameter for determining the number of CRs and plutonium content or inventory in the SFR core design, along with the burnup reactivity loss. Measurements on these reactivity losses were therefore performed during the system startup tests in the Japanese prototype SFR Monju in 1995 and analyses have been carried out for several times. The most recent analysis on the power coefficient measurement in Monju was presented by Takano (Takano, et al., 2008). The following latest findings, which have not been taken into account in the past analyses, are available at present and may affect the existing results: (a) in-core temperature distribution effect, (b) crystalline binding effect, (c) logarithmic averaging of the fuel temperature, (d) localized fuel thermal elongation effect, (e) updated Japanese Evaluated Nuclear Data Library, JENDL-4.0, and (f) refined corrections on the measured value. The influences of refining the calculational models and measured value corrections were therefore quantitatively identified in this study by considering all of these new findings. As a result, it was revealed that the analysis overestimates the experiment by 8.1% for the total uncertainty of 5.9%. Therefore, an additional effect, that is the core bowing effect, was considered in the calculation, and the discrepancy was reduced to 2.9%. The possibility of a significant contribution from the core bowing or deformation effect was thus suggested.
Ichikawa, Shoichi; Kawanago, Sho; Nishio, Ryuichi; Wakimoto, Fumitsugu; Fujimura, Tomofumi; Kobayashi, Takanori; Sakamoto, Tsutomu
JAEA-Review 2015-009, 210 Pages, 2015/07
JAEA-Review-2015-009-01.pdf:60.82MBJAEA-Review-2015-009-02.pdf:63.6MBJAEA-Review-2015-009-03.pdf:66.2MBJAEA-Review-2015-009-04.pdf:62.99MB
The loss of the retaining split pins (four pieces) for clevis pin were confirmed at the inspection of the pipe supports in the Monju prototype fast-breeder reactor in May, 2014. The split pins (two pieces) of ROD RESTRAINT and CONSTANT HANGER were fallen off. The split pins (two pieces) of MECHANICAL SNUBBER were broken at both ends of them. As a result of investigation, a dimple pattern was observed in a fracture surface of broken split pin. This observation result showed that fracture morphology is ductile fracture. A reproduction test, whether split pin was broken by loading the external force to the clevis pin, also gave the same fracture morphology. As the result of all cause investigation, the reason of the broken split pins is that the split pins were loaded shearing stress by the external force loaded to the clevis pin axial direction. The result of the cause investigation and a recurrence prevention measure of this trouble was be reported by this report.
Aizawa, Kosuke; Togashi, Yoshinori; Sasaki, Koei; Chikazawa, Yoshitaka; Fukuie, Masaru*; Jimbo, Noboru*
Proceedings of 2015 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants (ICAPP 2015) (CD-ROM), p.808 - 816, 2015/05
Inspection technique in opaque liquid metal coolant is one of the important issues for the safety warranty of Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactor (LMFBR) core. A performance test of Under Sodium Viewer (USV) which was developed to detect obstacles in reactor vessel of LMFBR Monju was carried out. The ultrasonic sensors and reflectors are located across the core inside the Monju reactor vessel. The USV detects the obstacle between the core top and the bottom of Upper Core Structure (UCS) by differences of echo signals. This reports showed the USV performance test in Monju before power operation. In the test, the basic echo signals in various conditions were accumulated and signal to noise ratio met with the design value. Measured signals with and without obstacles showed difference clearly. Those experimental results showed that basic performance of the USV to detect an obstacle between the core and UCS.
